I went out to 1015 Folsom with my roommates and some people
from Apple to see internationally renowned trance DJ Paul
van Dyk spin. I'm not sure if we actually heard him but what
we did hear was cool. It was really fucking packed in there,
but the music was fun to dance to and there were cool lasers
and lights and smoke and stuff. Might have been better with
chemical assistance.

Afterwards we were accosted by a random crazy guy on the way
home. I am not sure if he was trying to mug us or what. But
Nick was on the ball and called a taxi.

Then we went to Lucky 13 and had some beers and played some
songs on the jukebox.

Steph: I thought you were going out to buy chicken.
Me: I was. But I decided to get pizza and cigarrettes
instead.
Nick: Is that the pizza?
Steph: No, it's a guitar cable.
Me: I'm going to step out and get cancer now.

life

Last night I went to an indie rock (the phrase begs
to
not
be capitalized) show at the Gream American Music Hall with
Nick and Schnitz. Acts playing were Magic Magicians, Ted Leo
and the Pharmacists, and Quasi. The first act was lame two
person drums and guitar only noodling, with scream-whined
vocals. I never got the impression that this was a band,
just two guys fucking around. Ted Leo & Co. rocked out
on a
few of the songs, which I approve of, but on others there
was an overwhelming sense of preciousness and
self-importance, and I can't stand the way Ted Leo sings.

Quasi were quite good. What is it with these
ex-husband/ex-wife two-person acts these days? That's some
fucked up shit. Anyway, the drumming was phenomenal, and the
keyboard playing was pretty rad. The singing was pretty
nondescript to me, though, and when the keyboard player guy
picked up his guitar, he apparently lost all ability to
create cool funky and melodic soundscapes, and reverted to
shapeless indie-generic noodling. Some of those songs were
saved by the drumming though.

Oh yeah, there were a lot of cute girls there.

All in all it wasn't bad for a night of three bands
I'd
never heard of before.

I also watched the Iron Chef mango battle just now
(Iron
Chef Italian vs. a Mexican chef) and it rocked. Amazing
dishes on both sides.

personal hacking

I've been working hard on reviewing the upcoming
GNOME
Human
Interface Guidelines. Along the way I read many other HIGs
including the classic Macintosh HiG and the new Aqua HIG.
Quite a learning experience. I am getting more and more
interested in interface design, and I hope someday I can
have a job that mixes in more of that with programming.

work hacking

There were plans afoot for me to work on an
interesting
new
open source technology at work. But it looks like we may
manage to convince Apple to adopt the best existing open
source product for this purpose instead, and help with it's
development. I probably shouldn't say more until things are
more firmly decided. Apple is definitely getting less
dfearful of the LGPL and to some extent even the GPL.

The proprietary bits bug me, but Apple is doing way
more
to
bring a great UI to Un*x, and to bring Un*x and free
software to the masses, than many pure free software
companies.

Still, it disturbs me how many people are just utter
Apple
fanboys, including people who work here. I'm pretty
indifferent to the whole thing.

Good day today so far. I got up early and ran some errands,
and then I made myself spanish-style fried potatos with
aioli and eggs sunny side up for lunch.

Then Steph and I went up to the Marin Headlands - there are
some really breathtaking views of the Bay, the Golden Gat
Bridge, the Ocean, and San Francisco from there. Wow! It was
warm and sunny and we pumped Kruder & Dorfmeister on the way
there. For dinner I'm making myself gnocchi in tomato vodka
cream sauce. It's coming out pretty good - the alchohol in
the vodka burns off and what remains does not have much
flavor in itself, but it makes the tomatos sweeter and
brighter. Search for a recipe on google some time. Goes best
with gnocchi, or tube or shell pasta.

I think later on I'll hit the gym and maybe go to a club or
go see Iron Monkey. I'm feeling pretty good today.

hacking

I'll probably have to pitch in and fix the Nautilus
performance issues for 1.0.5. That's hard to balance with
gnome-vfs hacking, oaf hacking, reviewing the HIG and may
day job....

Here are some facts (with citations) I have attempted to dig
up about Osama bin Laden's motivations (his organization
being the prime suspect un the recent attack). Rather than
stating my opinions (opinions just seem to get people mad)
I'll let folks draw their own conclusion.

According to this
article, the main thing that angers bin Laden is the US
troops stationed in Saudi Arabia at the request of the Saudi
government. He believes that Islamic scripture forbids the
presence of non-Muslims in the Arabian peninsula (citations
for this in Islamic holy writings I have seen include Hadith
Vol. 5:716 and Qur'an 4366, but these were found on sites
that aim to discredit Islam so I cannot vouch for how these
verses are interpreted by Muslims in general). This is one
reason his organization tries to destabilize the Saudi
government and attacks the US military presence there.
Second on his list of grievances is US support for Israel,
and third are US alliances with the more moderate Arab
governments (such as Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, etc).

In this
rare interview, bin Laden expresses these views (all the
references to liberating the Ka'aba
are to the US presence in Saudi Arabia). He also seems upset
at alleged support the US gave to the Serbs in slaughtering
Bosnian Muslims; and later in the interview, for a plan he
believes exists to split Saudi Arabia into three countries.

He also specifically includes Britain, along with Israel and
the US, in the "crusader-Jewish alliance" that he opposes.

I strongly suggest reading the article and the interview to
those interested in these issues.

(The reference to crusaders is particularly interesting
since the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 638 was used by
the Catholic Church to instigate the Crusades,
which resulted in the slaughter of many Jews and Muslims. An
amazingly sad and violent part of history.)

yakk: I still find it ironic that you criticize US
intervention in some cases and US inaction in others,
whichever better suits your agenda of making the US look
bad. Not that the US hasn't done bad things, but your
comments paint a wholly one-side picture.

I have the US to thank in part for saving my grandparents
from the Nazis and my parents from the Communists (if my
family hadn't been able to come to the US my dad would have
had a short and unpleasant career as a uranium miner in
Siberia). And I am grateful for this, despite the fact that
the US sold my country out to Stalin at the Yalta conference
(I'm Polish by origin for thosw who don't know).

Maybe you should think about the fact that if the US hadn't
entered World War II, Australia would be a Japanese colony
right now.

And even right now, when broad, unjustified anti-Arab
feeling in the US is at perhaps an all-time high, I would
rather be an Arab in the US than an American in any Arab
country.

While the US has made some poor decisions and done some bad
things, I frankly think much anti-American sentiment in the
world is jealousy. In particular, the casual
anti-Americanism seen in countries such as Canada, Australia
and France, even as they guzzle Coke, snarf down Big Macs
watch American movies and make the US one of their top
trading partners, is largely because these countries cannot
stand their relative irrelevance on the world stage. I get
by just fine without ever drinking Coke or eating Big Macs,
so I don't think anyone is forcing them at gunpoint.

Or look at Mexico; there is considerable anti-Americanism,
yet their top goals with regards to the US are to let more
of their people come here and have more American factories
go there (both of which I endorse, BTW - I believe in free
trade and open borders, unlike many anti-globalization
activists).